Arthritis is a disease which affects approximately 1 in 7 Americans and which actually encompasses more than one hundred different diseases frequently having entirely different symptoms, causes, and known treatments. Literally, the word arthritis means joint inflammation but has come to encompass disorders that affect not only the joints but other connective tissue of the body including supporting structures such as muscles, tendons, and ligaments as well as the protective coverings of internal organs. Although, as already noted, there are over one hundred different forms of arthritis, some of the most commonly occurring forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatic fever, and gout.
In my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,824 and 4,113,881, I describe a method for immunizing against rheumatoid arthritis as well as a method for relieving its symptoms. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown cause in which the joints become inflamed, painful, swollen, and later deformed. In addition, there may be general symptoms such as weakness, fatigue, and loss of appetite. The disease tends to be both chronic and irregular and can be severely disabling.
The aforementioned earlier patents of mine, however, do not address or suggest that the described treatments using cetyl myristoleate could be employed effectively to treat the many other diseases which fall under the general heading of arthritis but which have entirely different causes, symptoms, and known treatments.
The most common form of arthritis is osteoarthritis which is a degenerative joint disease which primarily affects cartilage that covers and cushions the ends of the bones causing it to fray, wear, ulcerate, and in extreme cases, to disappear entirely leaving a bone on bone joint. The disease can result in severe disability particularly in the weight bearing joints such as the knees, hips, and spine. Osteoarthritis is distinguishable, for example, from rheumatoid arthritis in that osteoarthritis involves little or no inflammation and is confined to the joints and surrounding tissue where there is a breakdown or disintegration of cartilage and other tissue thereby making it difficult for the joints to operate properly.
The occurrence of osteoarthritis frequently increases with advancing years. When all ages are considered, men are as frequently affected as women. But in people under age 45, more than twice as many men as women have it and between 55 and 65 more women than men have it. In the above 65 group, there is hardly any difference in the incidence of occurrence.
Accordingly, there is a substantial need for an effective, relatively inexpensive, and easy to administer treatment for forms of arthritis which are non-inflammatory and non-rheumatoid such as the most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis, as well as the many other forms of the disease which occur. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a methodology for treating non-rheumatoid arthritis effectively.